Agricultural Information Network For Ethiopia : Need, Functions and Implementation Strategy
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Date
1992-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The relevance and viability of cooperative approach by forming a
network of existing information service units in the country to
address commonly faced shortcomings in agricultural information
provision was assessed and discussed. A review of literature on
various aspects of information ne tworking was made mainly to draw
up a general framework and basic pri nciples essential to asse ss
viability, to determine possible and viable areas of cooperation
and to establish the particular type of net work required. A
preliminary survey on problems, resource capability and attitude to
networking on the existing information service units in Ethi opia
using questionnaire supported by selected interview was conducted.
The results revealed shortages in information sources, skilled
personnel, and equipment and facility; and cumbersome
organizational structures are widespread. standardization and
bibliographic control tools are also a bsent. Local publications are
neglected areas. Financial resource limitations are major problems.
The information services provided are limited to reading and
lending services by large. All these are constraints in the
improvements . of the services immedi tely. staff will i ngness to
appr oach , the" existing problems cooperatively was high.
Also surveyed with a different questionnaire were agricult ural
information users of the surveyed information service units so as
to assess their reaction to and opinions about the available servi ces which t he ne t wor k could t ake into cons i de r ation as i t s
ultimate goal. Al t hough at present books are t he most used,
journals and loca l pUblica t ions are rep o r ted t o be in great demand.
Liter ature s e a r ch, phot ocopying, doc ument delivery are a lso
requi red. The ma jority are dissati s f i ed with their in forma t ion
servi ce units beca us e their information ne eds are not met. However,
many seem to appreciate a cooper ative approach to the ser vices
although at present many are less frequent us ers of other similar
information units in the country.
Taking into consideration what is affordable by the existing units
on the one hand and the need to addr ess t he pressing problems on
the other, feasi ble areas for a network were identified ,namely,
establishing union c atalogues of holdings and list of local
publications, limited interl ibr ary loan, t raining and
standardization with focus on laying the g r ound for further wider
cooperation leading towar ds meeting the expressed as well as
generally r equired needs of users and to assist the services
achieve better standards of service and r esource base.
Recommendations are made to initiate the network and make it
operational.
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Keywords
Agricultural Information, Network For Ethiopia, Need, Functions